User blog:Northstar1012/The Sternritter and why I don't like them
As the title says, this is mainly going to be a blog where I rant about nonsense that circles around the Sternritter and how I think they are a rather lackluster final group of villains for the Bleach series to end on. Now before I begin this blog, let me be clear that is this my opinion, and since I am no expert on all things Bleach, you should take everything that I say as pure bullshit and/or not listen to it :) So let's begin. What We Know The Sternritter are an organization within the Wandenreich that are essentially the top 26 quincy, and are the equivalent of the Gotei 13. They each possess all the skills and abilities Ishida has shown and then some, namely a Schrift and a Vollständig, while also possessing the power level equal to or greater than the captains of the Gotei 13. Though only 16 have been confirmed to have captain-class power (from what I read so I may be wrong) To combat the Shinigami foot soldiers, the Wandereich have their own Soldat, which appear to be more experienced and stronger than their spiritual counterparts. The man leading this whole shabang is Yhwach, the very first Quincy whose blood courses through all others and had a beef with the former Captain Commander. What They've Done So Far Completely owned the Shinigami in absolutely everything and didn't wipe them out completely the first time around because of the plot clock where they had to make a hasty retreat while their enemy was literally about to fall over and die. They killed thousands of soldiers, caused massive damage, eliminated the strongest shinigami in current history, the main man himself Yamamoto, killed Byakuya (yes, killed because if it wasn't for fan outrage he would still be dead) and suffered no visible casualties that they would be concerned with. Also, through their magical Medallions of Bullshit, they seized several Bankais. What I Think About It Strap in because you're about to board the Hate Train and there are no immediate stops on the horizon. While I will continue reading Bleach until it ends, I am by no means one of those people that blindly loves it and thinks Kubo can do no wrong. Uh huh. That's not me. As a true fan, I should be able to call out the bullshit, especially when its so obvious. Theme So these guys show up and completely kick the ever living shit out of the shinigami, displaying super awesome strength and wielding medallions that steal Bankai to further humilate them. I get the whole thing about this arc was to convey true despair, which is fine, but the execution could have been a whole lot better. You have this group of superpowered Quincy utterly decimating the Gotei and then retreat because their one leader ran out of time? What? Haschwalth couldn't just oversee the cleanup? Because the way the casualties were described, there wasn't much left for the Quincy to do. Then they leave and we get the obligatory training montage where everyone is learning new techniques and becoming so much stronger, even though its only been a few days or something like that. Not months, I don't even think weeks. Then the second time around, they invade again and Yhwach is once again talking about how true despair is about to begin... for the second time. This whole theme of despair being conveyed through complete shinigami asskicking is just not sitting well with me and just Kubo's way of trying to make the Sternritter a credible threat. Leader Yhwach is the first, and I'm assuming, strongest Quincy to ever live to the point that he's the only person who could wield Yamamoto's Bankai. Awesome. Great. But honestly he's just another Aizen who seemingly planned for anything, and anticipated everything to happen, regardless of outside variables. Just always prepared. Since not much else has happened with him, I don't have much more to say on the guy except his design was kind of cool. Sternritter Where do I begin? Let me say the things that I do like about them. Some of the character designs are pretty cool and I don't necessarily mind some of their powers, as well as the ability to activate Vollständig, but their personalities are really my main issue. They're just a little over the top, like an exaggerated Espada. Honestly, I feel like the Espada were a much better and more well rounded group of villains, with distinct personalities, but had similar traits that made them seem like a team and coming from the same race. The Sternritter are just a bit too whacky for my tastes, namely Mask and Bambietta. I get they want to show them as being different, but I just look at them and think they're a bunch of wild cards with no real distinguishing qualities. I don't get how Yhwach killed off two of his own because they had a couple of words between each other but surrounds himself with all these loose cannons who don't seem to like each other very much, or even respect one another. Power Overpowered would be an understatement with some of these characters. Out of the 26 Sternritter, 16 have been mentioned as being equivalent to a captain, but they just own, and own, and own. The first time they showed up, they displayed so much power that they should've killed off the Shinigami and won the battle. Simply put. It was just too lopsided to stay believable for me. So the captains do their little montage and train, some acquiring some secret power or mastering that one thing they've spent years trying to master. Convenient much? But then again, its shonen. So its expected. But even when the Sternritter attacked the second time around, they still gave the shinigami a run for their money. Some Sternitter even faced a Bankai and still managed to survive, activating their Vollständig. Cang Du and BG9 only were "defeated" because Yhwach thought he should kill them for being knocked down, even though their Vollständig would have put them back into the fight. What sort of reasoning is that? Yup, kill off your soldiers for technically not losing, but instead being knocked down once. Again, if he's a perfectionist and demands that from his Sternritter, why is he surrounded by ones that seem to do what they feel like when they feel like it? So Vollständig can in fact match a Bankai and the Sternritter admitted having stolen them from a captain only held them back. Medallion Nothing like having a plot device thrown it to eliminate the captains greatest weapon because it was deemed as their trump card, then return it to them and say how it only held back a Quincy's true power through their Vollständig. I think the medallion was an idea that sounded good in Kubo's head and then turned out not so great on paper and just needed to get rid of it the next time they showed up. It was too much of a handicap especially since we all know that if a captain doesn't have their Bankai, they automatically forget how to use a sword, cast Kido, develop strategies, or pretty much do anything else that qualifies them as a captain. Schrift Some are really cool. Some I have no idea what they were thinking. With Mask being the latest reveal, his power has been revealed to be when the audience cheers for him, he gets healed/becomes stronger. Let me get this straight, before the boost he got completely schooled by a captain in Bankai, then when a single solitary individual says to get up, he becomes strong enough to face two captains now? Hmm, why doesn't he just surround himself with multiple fans and just beat everyone? Plot Too slow for me. Not enough going on in some chapters, while others seem rushed. I think there are too many elements that Kubo needs to expand on and they may just get a casual glancing with. I guess Kubo wants to wrap things up with everything he's done so far but it might be more than he can deal with right now. He's known to write on the fly and I think with something this big and so many things to clear up, he might not pull it off well. For crying out loud, he forgot that Shunsui lost his eye in the last chapter. Over at the main Bleach they're already trying to come up with excuses, like he got his eye healed in between chapters, or that it was always healed and he just wore the eyepatch because it was still sensitive. Kubo just forgot. Plain and simple. He writes rushed and simply forgot. There's no way that his eye was healed while in the middle of a faceoff with Haschwalth, nor was it healed before that time and he was just faking because his ear was still scarred and now wasn't anymore. Plus, it would've been mentioned because it was a big deal for Shunsui to lose an eye for it all of sudden be there again in the middle of a battle. I'm not even going to talk about Ichigo because he's the main character and has plot armor so whatever he does is supposed to just be fine. Conclusion The Espada were a better class of villains. These Sternritter are just overpowered, exaggerated cartoon characters who I can't take as seriously as I should for the final villains of the Bleach universe. Too convenient, too much emphasis on this despair and the only casualties so far have come from the Sternritter killing off their own soldiers. Bambietta was defeated, not killed, by Sajin, and her entourage did whatever they did to her. Cang Due and BG9 were executed. I'm guessing Quilge was killed but who the fuck knows. Honestly, this might just be my old age, but I guess I look for certain things in a story and all this to me seems unbelievable. Either way, that's all for now. I know I missed a lot but this was just an overview. I shall update some time in the future. Category:Blog posts